SINGAPORE — Three firms — MyRepublic, newly formed company airYotta, and Australian telco TPG Telecom — have submitted an Expression of Interest (EOI), formally expressing their bid to become the fourth mobile operator in Singapore, said the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) on Thursday (Sept 1).

On the other hand, OMGTel, a company set up by local tech firm Consistel to enter the fray to be the fourth telco, dropped out of the race — but two of its former senior executives are fronting airYotta. 

In a press release announcing that it has thrown its hat into the ring, airYotta describes itself as a “data-first telecommunications company”. 

It is helmed by chief executive Michael DeNoma and chief technology officer Philip Heah. 

Mr DeNoma was OMGTEL’s CEO while Mr Heah was vice-president (networks and infrastructure). 

Mr Heah was also formerly from the IDA, leading the Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network (Next Gen NBN) Project.

TODAY understands that they both left OMGTel two weeks ago. In these two weeks, they set up airYotta with one investor on board and described it as “a regulated fund that is the first of its kind; fully financed, supported by a single investor, and exclusively dedicated to wireless ventures”. This investor is not a former investor of OMGTel. The fund bought out OMGTel and liquidated it, TODAY understands. 

So far, airYotta has raised enough funds to roll out a mobile network, specifically a 4.5G LTE Advanced Pro network with an architecture common to 5G.

Last month, Consistel was fined S$300,000 for falsifying documents and failing to seek approval from the IDA before it transferred antenna operations in the Sports Hub to Consistel Sprint, a joint venture between Consistel’s parent company and Asia Networks.

TODAY understands that Consistel could not proceed with its plan to bid for the fourth telco licence because of this ruling by the IDA. 

At the press conference then, Ms Aileen Chia, IDA’s director-general of Telecoms & Post, had said that it may affect Consistel’s bid for the fourth telco licence in Singapore, adding that “it was the most serious instance of misconduct that has been brought to IDA’s attention thus far”.

In response to queries, Consistel said it did not submit an EOI by the deadline of 5pm on Thursday.

“We have filed a reconsideration appeal to IDA. But we didn’t have enough time to go through the process in time to make a bid,” said Consistel chairman Masoud Bassiri. 

The IDA will hold a spectrum auction to determine the fourth mobile telco in the third quarter of the year.

The third company, TPG Telecom, also offers fibre services in Australia, and was founded in 1986. 

It is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, and has a market capitalisation of A$10.6 billion (S$10.8 billion). According to its results in March, the firm earned A$1.15 billion in the first half of FY2016.